Squarespace Site in China

Hi there

I am planing to use Squarespace for a client by creating a new account. First, the client will mainly operate in China. Due to Chinese internet restrictions, is there a problem with Squarespace functionality wise eg. e-commerce, loading time, general access etc.

Thank you for clarifying and/or solutions! :D

Best

with this problem, you should contact Squarespace Custom Care

Hi there,

I would like ask if you have solved this problem since I also would like to create a webiste which can be normally used in China.

Thanks!

Best.

Hi @eaglescout,

Great question! I've worked with a number of clients who face similar issues where their Squarespace sites (like most sites) load incredibly slow in China, and largely are "broken". Take a look at the Chinafy 'bolt-on' . (www.chinafy.com). 

The bolt on is able to address:

1. Speed: Taking sites from 50+ to about 6-8 seconds on average. 

2. Compatibility Issues: These affect functionality (from APIs, to Images, to Transaction calls etc.). Chinafy resolves these on a mostly 'automated' basis. 

Full disclosure: This is one product of the companies I work for (among others).

Here are some resources. you can check out. Give me a shout if you'd like me to walk through them.

> Does Squarespace work in China?

> Test your site (or another Squarespace site) as it currently loads in China.

Best,

Hi, I ran into the same problem with Squarespace in China but found a quick fix called Chinafy. Take a look?

From my experience helping a few clients implement Squarespace, it does not work out-of-the-box in mainland China.  We discovered it was due to China's internet regulations and Squarespace's reliance on certain cloud services at both the hosting and resource levels.  Here is a free tool you can test your one site to confirm: https://www.chinafirewalltest.co/

One of our clients required their Squarespace site for lead generation in China.  To help them, we found a service provided by 21YunBox, which acts as a bridge that optimizes Squarespace sites for China's internet. They analyzed the sites to pinpoint slow-loading or blocked resources in China, (images, CSS, JavaScripts, Google Fonts, forms, video files, ect, ect). Then they're solution optimized those resources to ensure they load quickly and are accessible in China, without affecting the performance of our client's regular site. They provided us the optimized site at <SITE-ID-Example>.21cloudbox.com to test its performance from China.  We confirmed it worked in China without a VPN, with an average reach time of ~ 100-150 ms compared to  3000 ms - Timeout we previously observed in mainland China.  Then we set up geo-IP routing, which automatically directs Chinese visitors to the China-optimized version and global visitors to an international version, all while using the client's normal .COM domain.

Now when our client make any changes to their original Squarspace site, it'll immediately reflect on the optimized China site, including inventory updates.  The solution has been in place since mid-January. There were a couple hiccups at first, but they were quickly addressed by the 21YunBox support team. Now our clients are picked up on Baidu (china's Google) and generating high-quality leads from mainland China.

Hope this helps!  Good luck ‌👍‌